Perilous Shadows: Book 6 Circles of Light (11 page)

Tika missed Volk’s next
words. She was considering Finn Rah. She knew the woman had
actually fled the Menedula just before Cho Petak set loose the
madness, the fragmented creatures Tika was now convinced originated
in the Splintered Kingdom. Had Finn Rah been affected before that
event, and in a lesser way, or had it happened when she’d reached
the Oblaka? Babach had been unable to tell her just how powerful
Finn Rah’s mage talents were: she didn’t recall Ren ever mentioning
the matter.

Tika could see all too
clearly, how simple Mena’s corruption would have been, well
disguised, or delayed so that she remained a sweet child for long
enough to get her inside the Oblaka. She dragged her mind back to
what Volk was saying, but the crowd were shouting their approval of
whatever she had missed. The meeting appeared to be over, the
people dispersing, when Tika saw Hesla working through the throng
towards Volk. He bent his head and listened as the young woman
spoke urgently to him.

Shivan tapped Tika’s
shoulder and jerked his head towards the door, one brow raised in
query. She nodded and followed him and Sket, threading their way
through the people to get outside. The Dragons lay in the starlight
in a companionable heap, but Kija’s eyes opened as the three
strolled past to the waterside.

‘I wasn’t listening in
there I’m afraid. Did I miss anything particular?’ Tika
asked.

Sket gave her a look of
disapproval. He’d told her a dozen times, there was a time and
place for thinking, and a possibly important meeting was neither.
Kija’s voice spoke in their minds.

‘The young hunting bird
returned just now. I think others have been out, too.’

Tika glanced back at
Kija. ‘I saw her come inside, and talk to Volk.’

‘They are organising
themselves,’ said Shivan. He grinned. ‘Volk was explaining that
they’ll leave here tomorrow and keep a close watch on both the
Menedula and the Oblaka.’

Tika looked out over
the dark water just as a fingernail moon cleared the horizon. A
fragile reflection wavered across the lake’s surface. It was quiet,
very quiet. She sighed.

‘I wish there was a
place like this, just for us, without monsters and evil and madness
and worry,’ she said, almost to herself.

Then voices broke the
silence and she turned again as her company came from the house to
the place where they’d made camp. Essa joined them as they wandered
along to the fire just lit by Darrick and Kazmat.

‘Interesting that only
Volk’s done that changing thing in front of us, don’t you
think?’

Tika craned to look up
into the Sergeant’s face. Shea squeezed between them.

‘Perhaps they’re just
shy,’ she suggested.

‘Who’s shy and
why?’

Tika half turned to see
Rhaki close behind.

‘Aah. We probably
haven’t got that far in the explanations.’

He smiled, and Tika
thought it was a rather pleasant smile. He seemed far more
confident, yet it was barely a day since they’d met, and he had
seemed nervous and unhappy then. Could it be the effect of the
pendant? And she needed to talk to both him and Shivan about that
too.

Next day, Sket and his
guards were considerably dismayed to find nearly all of the Old
Bloods had decamped in the night. They hadn’t heard or seen a
thing. Sergeant Essa pointed out that most of them had probably
transformed to their animal bodies to leave the Blue Mirror, and
would therefore be able to move with none of the noise even the
stealthiest humans might make. Volk emerged from the
building.

‘Beela suggests you
move in if you’re staying here a while. She’ll keep house for you –
her own place isn’t far, and one of her duties is to care for this
building.’

His gaze shifted to
Rhaki, then back to Tika. ‘Beela says to tell you that Babach
sleeps now. He dream walked last night. Some of us sat with him –
it was not an easy night.’

Konya trotted towards
the house, her satchel of remedies swinging from her shoulder. Volk
sat beside Tika and accepted a bowl of tea from Onion. Khosa
marched away from them to climb onto Essa’s lap where she sat, her
back pointedly to Volk. Tika caught a grin beneath Volk’s
beard.

‘Have you upset Khosa?’
she whispered.

Volk’s small eyes
twinkled. ‘She tried to catch a rabbit for her supper.’

Tika nodded and waited.
Then her mouth formed a circle of mingled horror and amusement.
‘And the rabbit?’

‘It turned back to
Gilla, elderly cousin of Beela’s.’

Tika gasped, biting her
cheek to keep her mirth under control. Khosa’s voice rang in her
head.

‘It was NOT funny. It
was deeply embarrassing.’

Tika got to her feet
and fled towards the lake, shaking with laughter.

‘What was that about?’
Rhaki asked curiously.

‘Aah. Those
explanations. You know these people call themselves Old
Bloods?’

Rhaki nodded while Tika
tried to compose herself.

‘They have the ability
to change their shape. Always to the same creature, I think. Shivan
can do it, but he doesn’t think it’s quite the same method as with
these people.’

Rhaki looked puzzled.
‘I don’t think I follow.’

Tika glanced back at
the company and used mind speech to Shivan alone. ‘I don’t want you
to think I’m asking you to change as a sort of party trick, Shivan,
but Rhaki doesn’t know about your transformations. Or Volk’s
people.’

Shivan didn’t reply. He
got to his feet and began to walk towards Rhaki and Tika,
shimmering into his Dragon shape after two or three paces. Rhaki
could only stare as the Dragon that was Shivan paced almost
daintily towards the lake. Tika watched Rhaki’s face express first
shock and then fascination. Shivan seemed to float up into the air.
Although bigger than Kija or Brin, he rose more gracefully, and now
he drifted in a lazy curve back towards the shore. A gust of burnt
cinnamon blew into their faces and Shivan the Dark Lord stood
before them again. Rhaki looked back at the company and saw Volk
walking towards them

He nodded with a rueful
smile. ‘At a guess, I’d say your friend Volk changes to a bear’s
form.’

Tika was surprised but
Rhaki laughed. ‘I was told, when I woke in the cave, that a bear
might visit. Yesterday, Volk recognised me – this body I now have
anyway.’

Without warning, the
ground shook and both Rhaki and Shivan reached for Tika, all trying
to keep their balance. Within five heartbeats the ground was still.
Volk had fallen but was climbing to his feet. The Dragons were
hunting some distance away and now sent urgent questions to Tika.
She reassured them even as she reached Volk.

‘Is this land liable to
shake like that?’ she asked him.

Volk shook his head.
‘Such quakes happen very rarely, far south and east. I’ve never
heard tell of it happening here. Never.’

Tika heard her name
called and saw Konya wave from the door of the building. Making her
way there, she discovered her company had brought in their packs
and bed rolls, as Volk had suggested. When she crossed the
threshold, there was a tremendous crash of thunder. Tika spun round
to look over the lake.

The clear sky was
filling almost impossibly fast with swollen black clouds, and even
as she stared, pellets of rain and ice began to hurtle down. Sket
dragged her inside the door. She looked at him, his expression
equal parts anger and fear. Yes, he too was remembering those
spears of ice which had killed Maressa and Gan.

Konya caught Tika’s arm
and gave her a little shake to get her attention. ‘You must speak
with Babach,’ she began.

‘I am quite capable of
getting out of bed woman,’ Babach retorted from behind the
healer.

Tika saw the dark rings
under the old man’s eyes and slid her arm through his, drawing him
to one of the many benches in the main room. The building was made
of wood: thick logs, split and packed lengthways, covered on the
outside with clay or mud, but left exposed within. There were few
windows but her friends were clustered by those windows, watching
the lightning make ferocious stabs down into the lake. Thunder
crashed endlessly and voices had to be raised to be
heard.

‘What is it Babach?
Volk told me you dream walked.’

‘This storm is not
natural,’ he said.

Tika leaned her
shoulder against the old man’s. ‘No. It isn’t. No more than the
ground shaking just before it began.’

Babach rubbed his hands
over his cheeks. ‘The Menedula. Power is centred there and it is
building. But I was unable to see who the power is concentrated
through.’

‘And we have three main
choices.’

Babach
nodded.

‘I must talk to Shivan,
although I really don’t know how we fight this way.’

She got to her feet but
Babach drew her back. ‘Child, you didn’t ask so I thought perhaps
you’d heard. Elyssa, your friend, she – disappeared – at the same
time as Sarryen. I’m sorry, so sorry.’

Tika sat down again,
staring at her hands, and began to work the ring on her left thumb
round and round.

‘I hoped she might have
gone home, with Kija, but when no one spoke of her, so I began to
fear.’

A hand rested on her
bowed head and she didn’t need to look up to know that Sket was
there.

A creaking noise from
the far side of the room made Tika glance up. She saw Volk pulling
the wall inwards, and realised it was a very cleverly constructed
doorway. Before it was fully open, Farn came hurrying in, followed
by Storm and Kija. Tika saw trees close outside the door as Volk
pushed it shut again.

‘Where is Brin?’ she
demanded aloud, even as she hugged Farn and reached to stroke
Storm’s wet face.

‘He’s staying outside
until the lightning goes away. Then he wants to fly to the
Menedula.’

With the awful memory
of those ice spears clear in her mind, Tika swung towards
Kija.

‘How could you let
him?’

‘Hush.’ Kija’s mind
tone was calm, soothing. ‘Brin is sheltered by some overhanging
rocks, all hidden by trees. He will wait until the weather
clears.’

Tika drew a deep
steadying breath. How could she protect everyone, she thought, in
sudden panic? She’d already lost friends she cared desperately for
- she couldn’t face losing more. She felt two minds touch hers and
realised that both Rhaki and Shivan were offering comfort. Tika’s
eyes stung with tears and she leaned in to Farn’s shoulder. He
lowered his head to rest his chin comfortingly on the top of her
head.

‘Storm and I thought we
could all play that riddle game, until the thunder’s
gone.’

Babach looked up with
interest. ‘That sounds fun. How do you play?’

Tika managed a smile.
‘You’ll regret those words, Babach.’ She stepped away from Farn.
‘You explain the rules,’ she said. ‘I have plans to
make.’

‘What riddle game?’
Rhaki hissed.

‘Don’t ask,’ Shivan
hissed back.

‘Oh. That sort of
game.’

‘And while we’re
talking of games,’ Shivan continued. ‘Never, never, play a game
called snap-the-rat with anyone, particularly Shea.’

Abandoning Babach and
Konya to endure the riddle game, the rest of the company settled
round a couple of long tables across the room. After a quick glance
at Tika’s preoccupied face, Shivan began.

‘Clearly the Menedula
is the focus now, as the Citadel was in Kelshan and to a lesser
extent, the Karmazen Palace. We know strange beasts roamed these
lands for most of last summer, but they seem to have –
gone.’

Shivan looked to Volk
for further details. Volk shrugged.

‘Some were killed. Some
killed each other. We found a lot of their bodies but we couldn’t
see why they might have died – no injuries or such.’

‘None of them just lay
down and died in Kelshan, did they?’ Sket asked.

No one seemed entirely
sure, but all agreed the creatures had all been killed in
Karmazen.

‘They seemed less –
organised – here,’ Sket suggested. ‘Could that have been due to any
influence by Namolos?’

Khosa hunched lower on
Dog’s lap. ‘I have heard nothing through mind speech from Namolos
since Tika was snatched away.’

Faces turned to the
small orange cat, then away. They had all noticed she clearly felt
guilty about something whenever Namolos’s name was mentioned. Tika
listened but made no contribution to the talk. The thunder seemed
to lessen and Essa wandered over to peer out of one of the windows.
They could all see the sky above Essa’s head was clearing and the
rain had all but stopped.

Tika joined Essa, then
went to the door. She pulled it open and took one step outside,
Essa at her shoulder. Tika frowned. The air tasted wrong, it
tingled and prickled against her face. Essa dragged her back inside
even as Tika realised there was something seriously
amiss.